The grin that spreads across her face is slow and understanding. “No way.” She looks me up and down. “You’re theNakedReactionsguy.”
I blink again. “Yes.”
She laughs and laughs. “I watch your videos with Annie and some friends.”
I blink again. “Are you part of that geriatric girl gang?”
“Yes!” She chuckles. “Betty and Fernanda. No way. That’s so awesome. Annie never told me.”
My chest hollows out. Of course, Annie didn’t even tell her best friend, who knows bothNakedReactionsand Nico Giannuzzi, that they were the same person. I bang my head against the wall of the elevator. “Fuck,” I mutter.
“Oh boy,” she says cheerfully, unaware of my internal struggle. “You definitely have nothing to be embarrassed about.”
When we get downstairs, I scan the room, not seeing her. My pulse climbs. I approach the bartender with all the grace of an angry rhinoceros. “Was there a gorgeous Asian woman here? All tatted up? Arms and chest and legs and shit?”Alongside some of my hickeys.
He eyes me. “Yeah.”
Every muscle in my body pulls tight, including my tongue. Izzy takes over and slams her hands on the bar. “What did she do? What happened? Did she look okay? Where did she go?”
The bartender shrugs. “She got a martini. I always remember orders.” He tilts his head and looks up towards the ceiling. “She was crying. Pretty hysterically actually.”
My pulse falters, skipping several beats.
“She was crying so hard that I was gonna go talk to her, but…”
“But what?!” I roar.
“Whoa, dude, chill?—”
“If one more fuckin’ person tells me to chill, I’m gonna fuckin’ break something. What happened?”
He frowns. “I was gonna go over to her, but she got herself together pretty quickly.”
“And then?” Izzy shrieks.
The bartender looks at me with something that looks like fear. “She…”
“Dude,” I warn, the murder very evident in my voice.
“She went to talk to some guy. And then… they left together,” he finally says warily, like an apology.
It hits like a vacuum imploding. The air gets sucked out of the room, and everything collapses inward. Then I float—weightless, gutted, a single molecule drifting without a charge.
I don’t remember sitting, but suddenly I’m on a barstool.
“Annie,” Izzy yells. I look up. She’s on her phone, pacing. I lunge, but Izzy blocks me with her arm. She’s surprisingly strong. “Annie, I’m with Nico. We’re so worried about you. Where are you? Are you okay?”
Do not attack the small woman for her phone, I’m chanting in my head.
Izzy’s eyes flick to me before she turns away. “Okay,” she says. “Okay.”
I can no longer stand it. “Okay, what? Annie,” I yell towards the phone. “Baby. Honey?—”
Izzy paces across the room with the phone. “Yeah,” she says. “Did you—okay. Okay.”
I stalk after her, listening to her muttering into the phone. I follow her all around the bar and catch bits and pieces. “Annie, no.” “Stop.” “No.” “That’s not?—”
She suddenly stops and whirls around. I swear she grows seven feet tall and sprouts demon wings. I take a step back with the force of her rage. Her eyes narrow to slits, and when she speaks, it’s in the tone of someone who’s about to exorcise me with her bare hands. “Back. The fuck. Up. Stop fucking following me, Nico. Go stand over there.” She points towards the far side of the bar.
